2026-10-12Lookup Without Understanding
“Artificial intelligence” is no more intelligent than a pocket calculator or a library: just because both can be used to quickly find something out, it does not mean that there is an intelligence there that understands something.
This seems wrong. But why? The first reason that comes to mind is that AI is not as passive as a calculator or library. In contrast to a calculator, an LLM’s outputs are underspecified by human inputs. In contrast to a library, AI can produce things. A library merely stores things. LLMs are not merely compressed versions of their training data.